To CV or Not to CV?

Seth Godin has a typically brilliant post on his blog today entitled Why bother having a resume? in which he makes a very good case for not having a resume or curriculum vitae.

Seth makes some very good points in his post, among them:

A resume is an excuse to reject you. Once you send me your resume, I can say, “oh, they’re missing this or they’re missing that,” and boom, you’re out.

I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects? Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch? Or a reputation that precedes you? Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?

The first point is absolutely right; as somebody who has recently been through the process of recruiting a team I recognised Seth’s description right away. Whether you like it or not or intend to or not this is how you end up when presented with a pile of CVs. This isn’t helped by the shocking quality of many of these CVs.

I love the remaining points. It’s a ballsy move but if somebody won’t consider you without a CV maybe you don’t want to be working for them…